When I talk to hospital HR people, they all say the same thing. They have numerous internal candidates, (including graduating student nurses who have worked at their hospitals) that they have few to no spots for external candidates for jobs and especially nurse residencies. They are only looking at local candidates who have experience as a CNA or PCT. Or are extremely exceptionally connected. Too few jobs for too many new grads.:smackingf

If I wanted to grovel for a job after graduation, I would have majored in Art History. I can't believe how competitive it is to get a nursing job. There is no place to turn if you don't have that elusive "one year" of experience. I'm an older new grad....never worked as a CNA...don't have a mother or a sister who is a nurse...no connections. So am I totally screwed here or what? Husband is the breadwinner, so moving to Odessa, TX is out of the question.

New grad Nurses....sorry, no good news here. I run a job board for medical and nursing jobs. If you are looking for a hospital job things have gotten worse for you. It used to be that there were so many nursing jobs available that hospitals would take on a relatively new nurse. Even then they had to have that elusive one year of experience. Now, things are different. Because people lost their jobs, they also lost their health insurance, and because of no health care insurance they quit going to the hospital. So the census dropped which means less nurses are needed. Also, this problem is compounded because retired nurses are coming out of retirement due to financial necessity. All of this equals less jobs. Hospitals are now requiring even more experience. Some hospitals require 2-3 years of experience.

I was baffled by this for a long time. Let me clear the air. It's all about liability. The hospitals carry insurance and so do the staffing agencies. The insurance companies will not cover an agency or hospital who employs nurses with no experience. I shouldn't say they won't cover them. Some will but it is very, very expensive. The hospitals and agencies can't afford to pay this high rate. If they did, the pay rate they could offer the nurses would almost be insulting. They would have to do this to offset the cost of the insurance. Even if a staffing agency could afford to pay this insurance and actually find new grad nurses to work for a very low rate per hour, the agencies will still have to convince the hospitals to allow a new grad to work there. There would still be a liability issue to the hospital if a new grad makes a mistake. The patients don't sue the agency. They sue the hospitals. The hospitals aren't willing to take on an additional cost of a higher insurance policy either, especially with the census being down. They are struggling to keep their doors open as it is.

We could go on about malpractice lawsuits and torte reform but lets leave that for another discussion.

This is my opinion as to why new graduate nurses can't find hospital jobs. Does anyone else have an opinion?

Thanks I know why I need the insurance I was being facetious. As for fellowships and internship's they usually or almost ALWAYS lead to a full time position at the particular hospital when done. So it does in fact count as experience for THAT hospital.

It's about time someone raised their voice on the shortage of new nurse graduate jobs. However I feel that we still need to send the message out about the nursing crisis us new grads are facing. Colorado is one place that is having this problem, because we have so many nursing schools and not enough jobs for all of us.